Last Modified: Friday, December 7, 2012 at 11:00 a.m.

"Eden Rise" begins in 1993, when Tom McKee – law professor and recovering alcoholic – is summoned by the new U.S. attorney in Montgomery, Ala.

The prosecutor, a Clinton appointee, is revisiting some old race-related homicides in rural Alabama, in particular, the killing of a young black college student.

Flash back to 1965: Young Tom, who's just finished his freshman year at Duke University in Durham and is preparing to drive home to Eden Rise, a small farming town on the edge of the Black Belt. He's lending a ride to his best friend, basketball standout Jackie Herndon, and to Jackie's rather bossy girlfriend, Alma.

Nothing unusual here – except Tom happens to be white and Jackie and Alma happen to be black.

(Author Robert J. Norrell is playing with history here, but he has his chronology right: Duke University's first African-American basketball player, C.B. Claiborne arrived in Durham as a freshman in 1965 and played for the varsity Blue Devils from 1967 to 1969.)

Their friendship causes little stir on campus, but they're steering into a powder keg. Most White Alabamans still haven't accepted the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, and they're bracing for a wave of "outside agitators" and what civil rights organizers are billing as the "Freedom Summer." Alma's signed up to teach in a "freedom school" and she's dragooned Jackie into coming along.

They run into trouble at a tiny country store. The owner, thinking he's found a car full of "Freedom Riders," opens fire. Jackie's hit and bleeds to death in a segregated hospital in Montgomery, the nearest facility that will take blacks. Tom, who returned fire – his grandfather's old gun just happened to be in the car – is charged with attempted murder.

In the meantime, Tom – the son of a prominent planter family – finds he's suddenly lost all the privileges he's taken for granted all his life. Old friends drift away. His family starts to get threatening phone calls in the middle of the night. Tom's father, a conservative probate judge (a powerful administrative post in Alabama counties) suddenly finds his job threatened by Gov. George Wallace's political machine.

The only people who might save Tom's hide are an eccentric Montgomery lawyer and a tough black kid from the streets of Chicago who's deputized as Tom's personal bodyguard.

Norrell, an Alabama native and longtime professor at the University of Tennessee, has written a number of distinguished volumes of history, notably a 2009 biography of Booker T. Washington. "Eden Rise," his first work of fiction, deftly catches the flavor of its period, as whites left the public school system en masse to found "rebel yell" academies, and as thousands of white voters began to defect from the Democratic Party.

Some of this is rough to read. (Norrell's characters repeatedly used the "N" word, basically because that's the way white Southerners talked in that time and place.)

Tom finds redemption, however, through what might be called the feminine principle. His mother, his sister Cathy and his formidable Irish-American grandmother, Bebe, show him the angels of their better natures and point toward a possible future that's kinder and gentler.

And while "Eden Rise" tells a darker, more twisted tale than "To Kill a Mockingbird" – courthouse veteran Joe Black Pell pulls some tricks, in Tom's defense, to which Atticus Finch would never stoop – Tom, through the women of his family, finds grounds for hope and faith.

<p>A dark moment in the history of America's civil rights struggle is dramatized in a new novel by a noted Southern historian.</p><p>"Eden Rise" begins in 1993, when Tom McKee – law professor and recovering alcoholic – is summoned by the new U.S. attorney in Montgomery, Ala.</p><p>The prosecutor, a Clinton appointee, is revisiting some old race-related homicides in rural Alabama, in particular, the killing of a young black college student.</p><p>Flash back to 1965: Young Tom, who's just finished his freshman year at Duke University in Durham and is preparing to drive home to Eden Rise, a small farming town on the edge of the Black Belt. He's lending a ride to his best friend, basketball standout Jackie Herndon, and to Jackie's rather bossy girlfriend, Alma.</p><p>Nothing unusual here – except Tom happens to be white and Jackie and Alma happen to be black. </p><p>(Author Robert J. Norrell is playing with history here, but he has his chronology right: Duke University's first African-American basketball player, C.B. Claiborne arrived in Durham as a freshman in 1965 and played for the varsity Blue Devils from 1967 to 1969.)</p><p>Their friendship causes little stir on campus, but they're steering into a powder keg. Most White Alabamans still haven't accepted the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, and they're bracing for a wave of "outside agitators" and what civil rights organizers are billing as the "Freedom Summer." Alma's signed up to teach in a "freedom school" and she's dragooned Jackie into coming along.</p><p>They run into trouble at a tiny country store. The owner, thinking he's found a car full of "Freedom Riders," opens fire. Jackie's hit and bleeds to death in a segregated hospital in Montgomery, the nearest facility that will take blacks. Tom, who returned fire – his grandfather's old gun just happened to be in the car – is charged with attempted murder.</p><p>A Grisham-like courtroom drama follows, as Tom struggles to gain justice for his dead friend (while trying to avoid prison himself). </p><p>In the meantime, Tom – the son of a prominent planter family – finds he's suddenly lost all the privileges he's taken for granted all his life. Old friends drift away. His family starts to get threatening phone calls in the middle of the night. Tom's father, a conservative probate judge (a powerful administrative post in Alabama counties) suddenly finds his job threatened by Gov. George Wallace's political machine.</p><p>The only people who might save Tom's hide are an eccentric Montgomery lawyer and a tough black kid from the streets of Chicago who's deputized as Tom's personal bodyguard.</p><p>Norrell, an Alabama native and longtime professor at the University of Tennessee, has written a number of distinguished volumes of history, notably a 2009 biography of Booker T. Washington. "Eden Rise," his first work of fiction, deftly catches the flavor of its period, as whites left the public school system en masse to found "rebel yell" academies, and as thousands of white voters began to defect from the Democratic Party.</p><p>Some of this is rough to read. (Norrell's characters repeatedly used the "N" word, basically because that's the way white Southerners talked in that time and place.)</p><p>Tom finds redemption, however, through what might be called the feminine principle. His mother, his sister Cathy and his formidable Irish-American grandmother, Bebe, show him the angels of their better natures and point toward a possible future that's kinder and gentler.</p><p>And while "Eden Rise" tells a darker, more twisted tale than "To Kill a Mockingbird" – courthouse veteran Joe Black Pell pulls some tricks, in Tom's defense, to which Atticus Finch would never stoop – Tom, through the women of his family, finds grounds for hope and faith.</p><p><a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic14"><b>Ben Steelman</b></a>: 343-2208</p>